The last pandemic to hit was the 1917 flu outbreak that killed 50-100 million people!!! That was 3 to 5 percent of the entire Earth’s population! 500 million world-wide got infected. Now it may happen again.

A Brief History of Bird Flu

Most yearly flu outbreaks that occur in the United States originate in Asia. It usually takes a year or two for them to work their way to the USA.

That gives us Americans time to develop vaccines to guard against them. Each flu is unique. Each flu must have a new vaccine developed to stop it. Each winter many Americans religiously get vaccinated against the newest flu threat.

The Great H5N1 Pandemic of 2009

The last big media-hyped bird flu epidemic in the United States was in 2009. Back then we were all gonna die from the H5N1 bird flu. It was all over the news. That flu also came from China.

Fortunately, big government was at the ready. The federal government is ever vigilant to save us from any and all evil threats we may face. This time was no exception.

One of the first expenditures of President Obama’s “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” was to spend $1.5 billion to immediately create 100s of millions of vaccines against the H5N1 flu menace. It was a perilous race against time. The nation was gripped in fear.

It was a brilliant stroke of governmental genius. Kill two birds (pun intended) with one stone. Save us from H5N1 AND save the economy at the same time. Its a win-win, right?

Sooo… we give Sanofi Pasteur, a foreign-owned company, $1.5 billion to make the vaccine. According to Recovery.gov at the time, Sanofi ultimately created 40 U.S. jobs. That is $37.5 million per job for those keeping track. Sanofi profits went to France.

OK… so the job creation and economic stimulus part didn’t work out so hot. At least we can be glad the vaccinations saved millions of United States citizens from certain death. Right?

Uhhhh… not exactly. 10s of millions of vaccines were grown in chicken eggs in a sprawling facility in rural Swiftwater, Pennsylvania and in Europe. Chicken egg incubation of vaccines is a very time consuming process.

Sanofi made a boo-boo. Their vaccine didn’t work and they had to throw everything out and start all over again. The vaccines didn’t become widely available until December 2009.

By then – GASP! – it was to late. The epidemic was over. The world-wide death toll caused by H5N1 was around 5,000. The average death toll in the United States from influenza each year is about 15,000.

Whoops! No pandemic. Dang! I hate when that happens.

Conclusions

Some of you may have went to Recovery.gov to check up, just see if what was written here is true. Good for you. I would.

To be honest, I do not know if you can find the main $1.5 billion spent. My cursory search at Recovery.gov to relocate it could not turn up all the money. But I could find Sanofi’s GPS coordinates in Pennsylvania at Recovery.gov. ( 41°5’29.00″N, 75°19’8.20″W )

Back in October 2009, I saw the very first “Stimulus” transparency report from Recovery.gov. It was part of the new open and honest government policy promised us by President Obama. The giant Sanofi expenditures were at or near the top of the list. Nuclear cleanup money for Hanford in Washington State might have been more.

Then the bad news about the delay in vaccinations from foreign-owned Sanofi started to come out. Then just like that, within two days, the $1.5 billion expenditure disappeared off Recovery.gov. It may still be gone.

Remember this, though… we are all gonna die!!! I read it in the paper this morning.